A proposal by district administrators to raise meal prices in Merrimack Valley schools was temporarily tabled by the school board on Monday, with some members expressing concern that any increase could further hamstring families who are struggling to get by.

“Kids cannot function if they’re not fed,” Salisbury representative Peggy Jones-Blanchard said. “They’re not guaranteed breakfast in the morning and all we can do is give them a chance at lunch, so I’d hate to see the prices go up.”

The proposal to raise meal prices by at least $0.25 to $0.50 was driven by a desire to offset rising debt from unpaid meal bills, according to Assistant Superintendent Catherine Masterson. Already this year, families’ debts total $13,500, Masterson said.

“I’m not looking to charge our families more for food, but just asking us to consider” how to handle that debt, Masterson said at the school board meeting on Monday.

The meal increase request comes two years after prices were raised by $0.15.

Merrimack Valley currently charges $2.50 for lunch at the elementary schools, $3 at the middle school, $3.25 at the high school, and $1.65 for breakfast at all levels.

Those prices are currently roughly on par with other districts in the area. In Concord, a larger district than Merrimack Valley, the lunch prices are slightly higher: $2.75 for elementary school, $3.00 for middle school, and $3.50 for high school. In Pembroke, a smaller district, the prices are higher in some grades and lower in others: $2.60 at both the elementary and middle schools and $2.85 at the high school.

An increase of $0.50 would push Merrimack Valley’s prices toward the higher end of comparable school districts but it would not place the district at the very top of the list. For example, SAU 39, which includes Amherst and Mount Vernon, charges $3.85 for its high school lunch, $0.15 higher than Merrimack Valley’s would be if it were raised by $0.50.

The contemplated price increase in Merrimack Valley would affect both breakfast and lunch prices. It would not raise the reduced lunch price, which is set at $0.40 federally. 

School districts across the state are increasingly struggling to rein in lunch debt, which has grown precipitously since before the pandemic. 

Last year, the Concord School District – which has nearly twice as many students as Merrimack Valley – was forced to absorb $92,000 in lunch prices. Masterson, the Merrimack Valley assistant superintendent, did not immediately have the amount her district has been forced to cover in recent years.

School districts already subsidize school meals to a certain extent. In Merrimack Valley, for example, lunch has a value of $4.52, according to the paid lunch equity tool, Masterson said.

When school meal costs go unpaid, districts typically resort to escalating notifications to families. Rarely, certain districts take families to small claims court if those notifications go ignored, InDepthNH reported earlier this school year. Ultimately, though, districts need to balance their budgets, whether they get repaid or not.

Administrators in various school districts attributed increases in school lunch debt in part to the fact that families grew accustomed to not paying for lunch during the pandemic, when it was free. That freeze ended in 2022.

In Merrimack Valley, school board members lamented that New Hampshire has failed to adopt a statewide free school meal program.

 “That is something I would love to see happen,” said board Chair Tracy Bricchi, who is also a newly elected state representative from Penacook.

Superintendent Randy Wormald also encouraged families to apply for free or reduced lunch. This school year, families must make below $57,720 to qualify for a reduced-price lunch or below $40,560 for free lunch.

“There really is no stigma to a free or reduced lunch,” Wormald said.

The school board will reconvene at its January meeting to reconsider raising meal prices.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.